Joel
AssoonasIgot home, I carefully eased my shirt off over the tender flesh of my shoulder, then went straight to the bathroom, which had the largest mirror in the apartment. Turning left and right, I twisted around to catch a glimpse of the tattoo permanently inked onto my body, but no matter what angle I tried, it was nothing more than a black blob in the corner of my vision. Dammit, why wasn’t I more flexible?
“Come on,” I whined, more than a little frustrated by this point. “What is it?”
Why wouldn’t Kedi just tell me what it was? He swore it wasn’t anything bad, but I could tell he had big thoughts and opinions about the design that he was keeping to himself. Even before that, though, the artist should’ve toldme before I left the shop, shouldn’t he? Let me see in the mirror there?
Great, now I was thinking about North again.
Of course, it was only natural that my thoughts went back to the dark godlike man. He was the artist, after all, and the way he’d been occupying my thoughts since I walked out of his tattoo parlor had absolutely nothing at all to do with how hot he was. I mean, it wasn’t like I was actually interested in the guy in anymeaningfulway. He’d barely said a dozen words the entire time, so no chance of me getting to know anything about him. The man was just as intense as everyone said, to the point that he was borderline terrifying. He was so tightly wound, like he was just barely containing his capacity for violence. He was like one of those cursed Jack-in-the-Box toys, and I was turning the crank around and around, the creepy music needling at me as I waited for a demon clown to pop out and devour me. (So sue me, clowns were nightmare fuel.)
And yet… there wasn’t a single second I’d felt worried that he would hurt me. He set his hands on my body, clinical, too innocent, and I craved more. This wasn’t at all like me. So what if he was good-looking? He had done absolutely nothing to make me think he would give me a second thought.
Groaning, I dropped down to my knees and dug under the bathroom counter, looking for the handheld mirror I knew we had under here. “Aha!” I shouted, holding it up in triumph. At last, I would get a look at my tattoo.
Turning my back to the vanity, I held the smaller mirror up to see over my shoulder. “Oh!” I gasped, reaching to touch it, but stopped myself at the last second because touching was surely on the list of no-nos. I just stared at it for a long time, a strange fluttery feeling filling me at the sight of it.
It was a pawprint, but what kind of animal was it? I fumbled to pull my phone out without taking my eyes off the tat and quickly did a search on animal tracks. It was about four or five inches across, with four rounded toe pads. Definitely a predator of some kind, and a larger one at that. I could immediately eliminate wolf, fox, coyote, lion, because they were the wrong shape. What was it? The knowledge felt just out of reach, and it felt important that I know.
All through making dinner, I kept going back to the mirror to look at it again. I’d stopped bothering to put my shirt back on, just so I could look whenever I wanted. It was almost a compulsion at this point. And every single time, the sight of it made my insides tremble. Even though it wasn’t as detailed as Kedi’s tattoos, I was absolutely inlove with it. How did North know what I would like? He had to be psychic.
I heard the key in the lock, and Kedi strolled in, his shirt grease-stained after spending a couple hours under the hood of cars. “Honey, I’m home. Mm, something smells good,” he said, just like he always did when he came home from work. We took turns cooking, but he swore I was better at it than he was. There was a good chance he was using flattery so I would keep feeding him—especially considering most of what I made came out of a box and involved the microwave.
“It’s just frozen pizza,” I said offhandedly. I didn’t even give him time to settle in before I rounded on him. “I don’t get it, Ked. Why did you guys get all weird about my tattoo? It’s cute!”
Kedi froze on his way to his bedroom to get cleaned up. “You like it?” he asked somewhat warily, not looking at me.
“It’s not something I would’ve thought to ask for, but it’s perfect. I love it!” I was positively beaming, that tiny quiver shaking me right down to my socked feet.
His smile was still a little tight, but the tension drained from his shoulders. “Good, I’m glad you like it.” He took another step toward his room. “Lemme just take a quick shower, and then we can eat and watch a movie or something.”
“Sure, sounds good.” Before he could head for the bathroom, I took one last peek at the tattoo, sighing at the way it settled something inside me.
IwishedIdidn’thave to cover my beautiful tattoo up, but my boss would probably frown on my serving customers without a shirt on, so here I was, fully clothed—and hating every second of it. It was still quite tender, but I’d been given clear care instructions, and Kedi told me it shouldn’t take too long to heal. “Although every human is different,” he’d said like a weirdo.
Yawning, I hopped off the bus and headed down the sidewalk toward the café where I worked three mornings a week. It was still early, the sun just beginning to turn the sky a deep rose gold. There were a few cars out, but not a single pedestrian to be seen. I loved the city when it was quiet like this, before the air filled with car exhaust and blaring horns.
This particular morning, though, something was different. There was this tingling sensation that made goosebumps prickle up and down my spine. If I didn’t knowany better, I’d swear I was being watched. Without being obvious, I glanced over my shoulder, but there was no one there. Everyone said the city was safe, but omegas knew not to trust an empty street. I reached into my pocket and grabbed my keys in my fist, sticking them out from between my fingers, in case I needed to fight back. In the morning stillness, something scraped over the pavement behind me, and I whimpered. My heart rate kicked up a notch, and I quickened my pace, shoes slapping the pavement as I jogged up to the café’s front door.
I fumbled to get the key into the lock, my breath panting past my dry lips, and when I whipped my head around to look behind me, I half expected to see a thug in a mask, demanding my wallet. Except… there was no one there.
I could’ve sworn…
A shaky laugh bubbled out of me. “You big baby. It was probably just a stray cat,” I whispered, scolding myself for overreacting. I slotted the key into the lock, and just as I pulled the door open, I caught a whiff of tart-sweet cotton candy. Just like from Karma Katz… From North…
With one last curious look over my shoulder, I got to work on the opening duties. My coworker, Brent, came in soon after, and together, we dealt with the morning rush. It wasn’t a bad job. I liked my coworkers, and it paid better than my dog-walking gig, but it wasn’t full-time, so I didwhat I had to do to make ends meet. Even with those two part-time jobs, it still wouldn’t have been enough to cover rentandfood if Kedi hadn’t swung me that job at the bar his friend’s dad owned, Hair of the Dog. The clientele there were absolutelywild, but they tipped well, so you wouldn’t catch me complaining.
It was shortly after lunch, right at that point in my shift where I started counting down the minutes to when it was time to leave, when the front door opened. The little bell over the door rang, and inexplicably, my entire body lit up. I was facing the cappuccino machine, but I swore I knew who’d just walked in. North’s presence was so damn potent that I had an immediate reaction… of the sexual nature.
Discreetly adjusting myself before I turned around, I braced myself before I dragged my eyes up to take in the man standing at the counter. Gods, he was even sexier than I remembered. His eyes were pinned on me, making me feel like a bug under glass, his chiseled jaw flexing as he placed his palms on the counter.
I could feel a bead of sweat dripping down my spine. Was it hot in here? Pasting on a smile, I mirrored his pose, leaning closer. “What a coincidence, running into you here. Except you’re on my turf now, so you’ll have to play by my rules,” I teased, my voice sounding all breathy. Ihadn’t meant for that to sound like a pick-up line, but I figured there was no harm in a little casual flirting. It wasn’t like he could kick me out of his studio. But when he didn’t say anything, no flicker of recognition across his stony features, I had the worst thought—what if he didn’t remember me? My smile drooped. “Um, it’s Joel, from… yesterday. The, uh, pawprint?”
“I know who you are,” he said sharply.
“Oh, o-okay.” I nodded awkwardly. Why did he look like he was mad at me? I hoped he didn’t expect me to be silent for this exchange too, because it would be really hard for him to order a drink without words. Were we just going to point at stuff until I got it right? I cleared my throat, doing my best to dispel the heat rising in me. “Right, what can I get you?”
North drew in a long inhale, his nostrils flaring, before he let out a low grunt. “Make me your favorite,” he finally said.
